Growing together

Growing together

Harry S. Truman once said, “It's amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit”. To this day, it remains one of my favorite quotes.

Besides being the guy who dropped the atomic bombs that ended WWII, I know very little about the former president. So don’t quiz me!

But I like his quote.

If you listen to any athlete that wins a championship, they credit their teammates and everyone’s ‘team-first’ approach for their success. In addition to accomplishing a meaningful goal, alignment allows everyone to focus on creating success for the group, which tends to make team members better off than they would be as individuals.

I’ve written before that Run The Day prides itself on being aligned with our customers. Our success comes from the success of the races that we work with. Sometimes we spend time and resources with a race that doesn’t get off the ground, which can be frustrating. But that is OK. We want to do everything we reasonably can to help a race get started because that advances our mission by increasing the number of events that bring people together and keep people active.

While it’s OK when races don’t get off the ground (we know it’s hard!), the opposite of that is when a race grows (we love to see it!). It not only means that more people are running (and I believe that more people running would solve a lot of health problems and be a good thing for humanity), growing races tends to fuel the energy of race organizers, raise more money for awesome causes, attract more excited volunteers and strengthen the surrounding community.

So it was incredibly rewarding to see this year’s Wayne Turkey Trot get over 1,100 participants, 3X more than it had 2 years ago. Speaking of 2 years ago, here is a photo of Tim and I at that cold race when I ran the 5K in 19:37 with goofy long hair (feel free to laugh at me).

Since the race tripled from 2022, below is a pretty graph showing its growth. Selfishly, when I look at the graph it makes me happy. More importantly, I hope the graph will inspire other races to grow. Growing a race is possible.

While the races we work with deserve the credit for their growth, I like to think that the little things we do at Run The Day help. From our technology (which simplifies event prep work, streamlines registration and offers promotional tools) to our team (which brings positive energy, offers quality support and sends good vibes), when Run The Day does our job right, we boost race participation.

Aligning interests is like a super power. Harry Truman put it eloquently, but if you like simple, maybe you’d prefer the cheesy rhyme “teamwork makes the dreamwork.”

Regardless, I like growing together.

— Ian

Growth of the FS Investments Wayne Turkey Trot

It’s been awesome to see the FS Investments Wayne Turkey Trot grow. Congrats to Aldercy and her FS Investments colleagues and a big thank you to the entire Wayne community on building a great Thanksgiving tradition.

Resources for New Community Races

• Budgeting your 5K: Download a race budget spreadsheet

• Preparing for your 5K: View a simple race planning checklist

• Do It Yourself Race Timing: Learn about DIY race timing

• Race Spotlights:

  • Run Drugs Out of Town

  • Trapp Cabin Trail Races

  • Headstrong’s Running aHEAD of Cancer 5K

Ian’s 2024 Spotify Wrapped

If you ever wonder what I listen to when driving to races (I’m a psychopath who doesn’t listen to music when I run), here is my 2024 Spotify Wrapped.